Glee: A Brand New Direction (first book of Glee series)

Chapter 5: After

Chapter 5: After

Coach Sylvester demanded they take the trophy back as we carried it to the choir room. There, Ryder, Mr. Schue, and Santana were waiting with Marley, along with her mom, the lunch lady. Marley smiled weakly as she saw us walk in with the trophy.

"You did it," she said happily. At first I thought she was talking to me but it was actually to Jake, who took a spot next to her as Ryder moved out of the way.

"Marley, how are you doing?" Finn asked her.

"She's fine," said Santana, urging everyone to give her some air. She looked at Kitty and said, "No thanks to you."

"What?" asked Kitty, her eyes getting suddenly watery.

"Santana, don't start with that again!" Quinn exclaimed. Santana rolled her eyes. They started asking Marley all sorts of questions so I took that as my chance to get out of there. When I was out the room, I spotted John coming around the corner and quickly ran over to him. I was waiting for some confusion or questions but instead he spun me around in his arms. When he set me down, Cory snuck up from behind me and hugged me with some congratulatory greeting I didn't really understand as he squeezed me tightly.

"You were amazing," said John, a weird look in his eyes. Weird as in... Different.

"Definitely," said Cory. "And you have a lot of explaining to do."

"I know," I started.

"Is Marley okay?" asked John before I could say anything else.

"I think so," I said. "You guys; I'm sorry I didn't tell you I'd been talking to them and stuff. It was just kind of sudden and I didn't even know I'd be getting up there and-"

I realized I was talking way too fast for them and cut myself off just as Sam was approaching us.

"Hey MVP!" he exclaimed as he joined us. I smiled. The guys didn't say anything. Sam said, "You were great tonight! Amazing! Just wanted to let you know; we're having an after-party at the Sugar Shack. Sugar promised that it'd be just us so it'll be a good time to get to know everyone. You should come."

"I was actually-" I started, pointing at my guys.

"Go ahead," said Cory. "Have some fun. But not too much fun." He smiled and I returned it, unsure, but John nodded with reassurance so I gave in.

"They can come, too," said Sam before I accepted.

"Oh, I can't," said Cory. "I've got some studying to do. You know, the Government test?"

"Oh, right," said Sam. I guess they both had that class.

"Will you...?" I asked John pleadingly. He hesitated so I said, "You know... To Sugar's restaurant..." He nodded and then agreed to go, so it was settled. We were both going to the party. I changed out, as did everyone else, and anxiously walked out. Cory had driven us both to school so we had to ride with someone from the glee club. Sugar was delighted to help John out- obviously he'd been working his charm lately- so I was stuck riding with Jake, Marley (who had to practically fight her mom into letting her go for a bit but luckily Finn and Ryder could convince her), Puck, and Santana. On the way, we stopped at an Italian restaurant to drop off Santana, who was meeting her mother and wouldn't make it to the party.

That left me awkwardly in the backseat with Marley.

I didn't say a word and she didn't talk to me. I liked it that way. She sort of intimidated me and I wasn't sure how she felt about me replacing her.

When we got to the restaurant, I immediately saw why she got everything she wanted. Her family was loaded and the place they had owned- and she had renamed back in February when they bought it for her- was decorated and there was booze and everything. It was called Breadstix officially, but Sugar was able to rename it whenever she wanted, for any occasion and just rent it out for the day. When they walked in, music was playing from the expensive looking equipment and she was sitting at a table with John, giggling away at something he was telling her. I was surprised to see that it was indeed an intimate party. Just the glee kids. No adults. Except for the alumni, of course. Not everyone had arrived yet but the majority was there, already drinking and/or dancing.

"You made it," said Sam as he walked over to me with a smile.

"Yeah," I said and I couldn't help but smile at him. Then I noticed that while Marley and Puck had walked off to the celebration, Jake was still there at my side.

"You did an awesome job tonight," Jake said to me with a smile. "Sorry I didn't really get a chance to tell you earlier."

"That's fine," I told him. "And thanks."

Sam smirked and said, "I did tell you as soon as I could."

"Well, I got to sing with her," said Jake, smiling at me and not even looking at Sam. I couldn't help but blush. Were they fighting for my attention or was I imagining things? It felt so unreal.

"Sam!" exclaimed a cheerful voice from behind me. Brittany quickly appeared in front of me and practically jumped on Sam.

"Hey!" he said with a laugh. He looked so smitten.

"Let's get dancing!" Brittany exclaimed as she dragged him towards the stage.

"And then there were two," I said to Jake.

"Hey, Jake?" Marley called out from a few feet away. "Can you come here?" He nodded, looked at me apologetically, then went off to her.

"Or one..." I murmured to myself. I walked away and headed over to the snack bar. I grabbed a brownie and then set it back down, not wanting to find out what the secret ingredient was.

"You can't just touch things and then set them down again like that," said a voice from behind me. "It's gross." I turned to find Ryder, about a foot taller than me, standing there with a cute smile on his face.

"Hi," I said. I actually kind of knew Ryder. Like many of the new glee kids, he was actually new to the school, a transfer. I had tried tutoring him back in September but he soon quit, frustrated that he couldn't get better grades no matter how hard he tried. Since then, we never really talked. I only really saw him in Study Hall.

"Long time no talk," he said.

"Yeah, I know..." I mumbled. Things got really awkward, really fast.

"So you know Jake?" he asked.

"Not really," I told him. "I only recently started talking to him."

"He seems to have some sort of interest in you," he said. I tried not to blush as Jake walked over to us and I saw Marley walking towards the door.

"I need to go walk Marley out," he said.

"She's leaving?" asked Ryder, completely worried about her. "Already?"

"Yeah," Jake answered. "She started feeling sick so Finn's driving her home." He turned to me and said, "I'll be right back and then I can keep you company." He smiled and all that silly me could do was smile back and get all flustered as he walked away.

"Marley's a nice girl," said Ryder. "Jake's an okay guy. What are you doing?"

"I'm not doing anything," I told him. I became suddenly really angry at him and at everyone else so I walked over to the beer and took one.

"Aren't you like sixteen?" asked Quinn, concerned, watching from a table as I took a sip of the beer.

"Wasn't that your age when Puckerman knocked you up?" I snapped at her. She glared at me and her jaw dropped slightly, her face a bit flustered. Kitty, who was sitting with her, opened her mouth to say something but I was already walking away and taking a big gulp of the beer. I had never really drank before so I was very much a lightweight; I felt dizzy after just a sip and two gulps.

I thought I was going to fall when two warm hands held me up from my arms. I looked at the face and it was Jake, half-smiling, half-not.

"I leave you for a few minutes and you get drunk?" he asked.

I didn't say anything, though, because an extremely drunk and giggly Tina announced, "Just as we did at Rachel's party two years ago, it's time to spice it up" pause for a giggle attack "with some spin the bottle!" She giggled some more and everyone excitedly joined her at the center, Sugar placing an empty beer bottle on the floor as everyone circled around it and took a seat.

"That's when we kissed for the first time," Sam told Brittany, smiling widely at her. She blushed and I took seat as far away from them as I could. I ended up next to Blaine, who had sat back indicating that he wouldn't take part in the game. Jake was watching me, I noticed, so I got into the circle more and took a seat ready to play.